As they say, the first step towards solving a problem is recognizing you have a problem. Stuck in your routine you may be “blind” to what’s limiting you and solutions that might exist.
With the New Year just ahead, its a perfect time for the following quick exercise to help you streamline business processes and make more time for yourself. If you are a manager, you can do it for just yourself or with your existing workforce in mind.
STEP 1: Write down what you actually do in an average day/week.
STEP 2: Make a list of things you should be doing and if you were, would truly move your organization forward. Dig deep, be honest. These could be nagging concerns and risk areas you keep ignoring thinking “it will never happen to us” but you backburner because you’re so busy doing everything on List 1. Avoid the temptation to go down Excuses Lane: “we don’t know how, we don’t have the staff or budget.” Don’t let yourself off the hook.
STEP 3: On the first list, put a check mark beside any item you really shouldn’t be doing or that isn’t providing much value.
The goal is to create awareness and provoke your thinking. Obviously there are only so many hours in the day, so now you need to remove some of the items you checked on List 1 so that you can take action on List 2. And get started… SOON.
“OK, now I’ve identified things I need to get off my plate — how do I do it?” That is the million dollar question. I too had way too much on my plate, but I was able to NAIL this. See Next Post to see how!